Sweet Dreams
by Anistan Summers
Summary: Phoebe, along with her sisters, need help from the vampire slayer, Buffy Summers to defeat an evil demon and save the life of a innocent child.


Sweet Dreams  
  
Phoebe found herself in a mysterious place, yet it was tranquil. She had no memory of how she had gotten there, or what had happened hours or even minutes before. It seems she was in a forest of some kind, but it was peaceful. Birds chirped happily, carrying on conversations with one another about their day and what there was to do. Trickling water told Phoebe that there was a small stream nearby, but everything seemed to have it's own misty look. It looked like one of those places out of a painting, one of those places that everyone knew there was no such place as peaceful in real life, but was nice to look at.  
  
Her wardrobe was different from modern day as well. She glanced down, finding herself in a dress from the fifteen hundreds, which was pure white. Phoebe took a few steps forward.  
  
"Piper?" She called out, but there was no answer. "Paige?" No answer from her other sister either.  
  
As she took a couple of more steps forward, she discovered that she was walking on a beaten path, lined with wildflowers of purple, pink, and light blue. The stillness was broken by a wave of an innocent laugh in the distance sounding as though it had came from a child, a little girl. Phoebe turned, and start walking in the direction she had heard it.  
  
"Hello?" She yelled out once again. "Is anybody there?"  
  
Yet there was no answer. Out of nowhere came a running child. Obviously she didn't see Phoebe, seeing as though this child ran right into her, knocking her own self down to the ground. Startled, but yet concerned, Phoebe helped the child up. It was a little girl, and she too wore a white dress, similar to Phoebe's. Her hair was a chestnut color, down to the middle of her back, and her eyes were an unusual color of violet, and she wore a cream colored, knitted bonnet on her head, the string hanging loose resting on the front of her chest.  
  
"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked, pulling the little girl up and kneeling down to be at her level.  
  
"I am. Thank you," The little girl dusted off her dress.  
  
"You dropped this," Phoebe handed the little girl a doll, "She's beautiful."  
  
"Thank you. My mother made her for me." The child replied.  
  
Phoebe smiled. It made her happy being in the presence of the child, as it always did. But the moment was interrupted by a disturbing rough wind, and the sky went from a crystal blue to a dark black sheet. Thunder sounded, and a white lightening bolt struck something somewhere in the distance. The child's smile now went to a horrified look, as she glanced away from Phoebe, then back at her.  
  
"Please miss, he's coming for me. He is here. Please help me get home before he finds me," The little girl's eyes went from happy and light, to dark and sad, with a streak of fear and panic.  
  
"Well-" Phoebe was startled, and interrupted, and was knocked to her feet.  
  
A man was now behind the little girl, and he roughly picked her up off the ground. The child's screams were shrill and horrid. Her tiny arms reached out for Phoebe's help, dropping her doll her mother made for her on the ground once again. Clearly seeing that the child was petrified of this man, whoever or whatever he may be, Phoebe reached out to grab her, but before she could, the man took his strong hands, and snapped the little girl's small, fragile neck, making the bones have a quick, clean breaking sound.  
  
Snapping out of the fantasy world and back into reality, Phoebe jumped, causing herself to wake up. Gasping for breath, she sat up in her bed, looking herself over to make sure she wasn't all of a sudden somewhere else creepy. Her wisps of hair in the front were drenched from sweat, as well as her clothes She had seen and heard necks snapped before, but not a child's, which was even more disturbing. She glanced over at her alarm clock, which read "7:00 a.m.", and she went on ahead and turned her alarm off, which was set for 7:15 a.m. She knew she wouldn't be drifting off back to sleep anytime soon. After taking a quick shower and changing out of her sweaty pajamas, she made her way down to the kitchen where Piper and Paige were enjoying early morning coffee to get their day started.  
  
"Well, you're up early," Said Piper in a friendly sarcastic voice.  
  
Phoebe glared at her. "Ha, ha. Getting down to the kitchen fifteen minutes earlier from when I normally get down here in the morning, is not considered early."  
  
"Yikes. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Paige said, taking a seat at the island in the kitchen.  
  
"Something like that," Phoebe said, resting her elbows on the counter, and propping her head in her hands.  
  
"Well," Paige got up from her spot, "I'm going upstairs to take a really hot bath and get dressed. It's my day of relaxation."  
  
"Oh, could you take that load of clean laundry upstairs with you and set it on my bed, please?" Piper asked.  
  
"And what a wonderful way to start it off," Paige grabbed the basket of laundry and left the kitchen.  
  
"So, what's on your agenda for today?" Phoebe asked Piper.  
  
Before Piper could reply to her sister's question, they both heard a crash in the hallway, and then a moan shortly after it.  
  
"Ouch," Paige said.  
  
Piper and Phoebe came running to see what had happened, and found Paige lying face down with an empty laundry basket and clean clothes scattered on the floor. Piper knelt down to make sure Paige was okay.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Paige rested for a moment then managed to pull herself up. "I don't know. I tripped over something in the floor."  
  
"Are you hurt? Are you okay?" Piper helped Paige to her feet, as Phoebe picked clothes up, putting them back into the basket.  
  
Underneath a clean shirt she found what Paige had tripped over, and to her surprise it was a doll.  
  
"Look," Phoebe stood up. "This is what you tripped over."  
  
"A doll?" Piper questioned, as she made her way over to stand by Phoebe to look the doll over.  
  
"That's what it looks like," Paige said.  
  
"Yeah, but what was it doing in the middle of the floor?" Piper looked the doll over.  
  
"She's really pretty," Phoebe reached over to take her from Piper's hands.  
  
There was a miscommunication between their hands and the doll fell to the ground. Phoebe bent down to pick it up, but as soon as her fingers touched the cloth of the doll, a vision punctured it's way into her mind as they always did. It took her breath and she fell to her knees.  
  
"What? What is it?" Piper knelt along with Paige.  
  
"What'd you see?" Paige asked.  
  
Phoebe had a flash back to her dream. She saw the doll fall to the ground as the man grabbed the little girl up, right before he broke her neck.  
  
Phoebe caught her breath, grabbing onto Piper's forearm. "It was hers. It was the little girl's."  
  
What she was saying made no sense to Piper and Paige, because they had no knowledge of the dream their sister had the night before, or just a matter of minutes ago.  
  
"What?" Piper said with a very confused look on her face.  
  
"What little girl?" Paige asked.  
  
Phoebe started to break out in a cold sweat, and she sat down Indian style on the floor, hugging herself, rocking back and forth, and Paige and Piper sat down with her. As Phoebe began to tell about her dream with her eyes still closed, she began to cry and relive the dream in her head again.  
  
"I had a dream last night," She stopped to wipe tears away, "And it was one of those dreams where you know where you are, but you don't. And, I looked around and I was in this forest. And there was this little girl - " Phoebe burst into tears.  
  
After calming down, Paige and Piper got Phoebe to her feet and to the couch in the living room.  
  
"Now, what about this little girl?" Piper handed Phoebe a hot cup of tea.  
  
"Well, I'm not sure. I was just in this forest, and I was wearing this hideous dress. It looked like something out of the fifteen hundreds. You know, the ones with the puffy sleeves at the top, then the sleeves get all loose?" Phoebe got sided tracked.  
  
"Yes okay, but we're talking about this girl," Paige interrupted.  
  
"Right," Phoebe jumped back on track, "Well, I was in this forest and I yelled for you guys and of course you didn't answer. But this little girl ran into me and knocked herself down and dropped this doll but that's not important. Well, out of nowhere for no reason the sky turned black and there were heavy winds and stuff. And she asked me to help her to find her way home, but before I could ask her where she lived or whatever, this man comes out of nowhere, yanks the kid up and snaps her neck in half." Phoebe took in a deep breath, "And I've seen necks snapped before in all our time as witches but, not a child's. I mean she couldn't of been older than five."  
  
"A demon," Paige said.  
  
"What? How'd you know?" Piper asked.  
  
"Well, I was reading through the Book of Shadows just yesterday and came across a demon exactly like that," Paige got up, leading all three sisters to the attic. She flipped through a few pages and found the spot she was reading from, "See? He looks like a regular human being, but he has incredible strength, which is nothing new with demons. When he makes his entrance, the surroundings turn black and come with a horrific wind and one single lightening bolt before he strikes his victims which are extremely young children."  
  
"Oh my god," Phoebe said, "Then this child, whoever she was, wasn't meant to die."  
  
"So, we need to figure out how to kill it, so you can do it in you dreams?" Piper asked.  
  
"Worth a shot," Paige said, "But there's only one problem. This demon can't be killed by witches alone."  
  
"Well if not just by us, then with who?" Piper skimmed the page.  
  
"A slayer," Paige said, "A vampire slayer."  
  
"What? They kill vampires and this was not a vampire," Phoebe explained.  
  
"Yeah, but see slayers kill not only vampires but they kill demons as well." Paige went on.  
  
"Someone's been doing their research. So how do we find this thing, a slayer?" Piper asked.  
  
"Well, there's only one. In every generation one is chosen." Paige said.  
  
"So how do we find her or him, or whatever?"  
  
"Sunnydale, California," Phoebe held up an opened book labeled Vampire Slayers: History, Up-to Date Locations and Incidences . This was a one of a kind book, left to them by their grandmother as well.  
  
Meanwhile, back in California, Buffy Summers was on her way home from patrolling. Willow had came along that night to help Buffy study for an exam in her first class that would take place the next morning.  
  
"I'll be fine. I pretty much know all of chapters one and two, but I'm fuzzy on three." Buffy said slightly moving her arms back and forth as they walked.  
  
"But Buffy, what if all the questions come from chapter three, and he doesn't have any other questions from the first two? Then you wouldn't know any answers and - " Willow was interrupted by Buffy.  
  
"Will. You worry too much. It'll be okay. Like I said, I'll be fine," Buffy said.  
  
"Well, okay."  
  
That night Buffy didn't sleep very well. She had blurry visions of children pleading for help. The last vision she had before waking up was part of the same dream Phoebe had. The little girl was reaching out and the man snapped her neck, which startled Buffy as well, causing her jump and wake herself up.  
  
"But there was something about this one little girl. She was at the very end of my dream and that part of the dream was so vivid," Buffy explained herself to Giles and Anya the next day at the magic shop, "This man snapped this little girl's neck in half. I mean, like her neck was just a flimsy tree limb."  
  
"Oh a demon you mean," Anya said, counting the money in the cash register happily, "They kill children for sport. It's kind of like how you humans kill animals, like a rabbit or deer. Very powerful by the way. Nothing like you could ever fight without any mystical help."  
  
"Thank you Anya," Buffy said in a low voice.  
  
"Anytime," Anya glanced up, and smiled, excusing herself to the back stock room.  
  
"Well whatever this demon was or is, is obviously in the past," Giles said, putting his glasses back on.  
  
"But we should fight it. I feel like I should do something. I mean that little girl died Giles," Buffy seemed frustrated.  
  
"Buffy it was a dream. It hasn't shown itself here and nothing has happened dealing with a child killing. So why fight something that isn't bothering us?" Giles asked.  
  
"Because it's bothering me," Buffy said.  
  
Outside in the parking lot, a black jeep pulled up. In it were Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Phoebe was in the back wearing sunglasses, and Paige in the passenger seat, and Piper drove. She turned off the ignition and they took a few minutes to scope the place out.  
  
"Hmm, the Magic Box. Catchy." Phoebe said, opening her door.  
  
"Maybe we can stalk up on supplies," Paige said.  
  
"If the prices are reasonable and it's not just hocus pocus junk. Ya know, the kind they just have for magicians and stuff? Like Lance Burton." Piper said, opening her door then pushing the automatic lock button.  
  
"So, how are we suppose to ask about this slayer?" Paige asked while walking with her sisters.  
  
"Easy. Whoever that works here should know something. They're not just regular sales clerks at places like this." Piper said quietly as she opened the door.  
  
The greeting bell rang, letting the Scooby gang know that people had arrived and for them to hush about any slayer related activity.  
  
"Good afternoon," Giles greeted while coming out from behind the counter, "Is there anything I can help you find?"  
  
"Ooooo, British," Paige whispered to Piper, as Phoebe wandered over to a shelf full of books.  
  
"Actually, there might be," Piper said, walking over the counter, sitting her purse down and taking her sunglasses off, "But I don't believe what we're looking for can be purchased."  
  
"And that would be?" Giles was clueless.  
  
"That would be the slayer," Piper said.  
  
Buffy's head popped up from the counter, with her eyes wide.  
  
"So, where can we find her?" Paige asked, stepping up beside her sister while Phoebe frolicked in the spell books.  
  
"Depends on what you need her for," Willow jumped up from the table in the middle of the shop where her and Tara were doing some reading.  
  
"Well - " Piper glanced at her sister beside her, while Phoebe was still taking a look around.  
  
"I mean, you can't just barge in here asking about a slayer. And how did you know that we could help you? And who are you to be asking?" Willow said, being defensive in her own sensitive way.  
  
"Good Lord," Giles said, taking his glasses off, wiping his eyes and placing them back on his nose, "The Hallowell sisters."  
  
"What? Wait okay hang on. How the hell do you know who we.or I mean, "they" are?" Piper's defensive side began to show itself.  
  
"I beg your pardon, please watch your language. I read about them in one of our many books. I'm not sure which one it was, but I know I read about you." Giles said.  
  
"Hey, hey. You read about "them", " Paige corrected.  
  
"Okay. Did we find her? Can we go now?" Phoebe stood beside Piper, holding some herbs and a few other odds and ins.  
  
"The power of three will set us free," Willow repeated.  
  
"What?" Giles was confused.  
  
"Well it's a long story. But, the power of three will set us free. I read about you in one of wiccan books. Oh, this is so cool, " Willow walked over to them, trying to hide her excitement but couldn't. She held out her hand, introducing herself. "I'm Willow. I'm a fellow wiccan. Except, I mean, not as awesome or as powerful as you guys."  
  
"Hi, nice to meet you," Phoebe shook her hand, then Paige, and with some hesitance, Piper shook her hand as well.  
  
"So you are the Hallowell sisters, yes?" Giles asked.  
  
"Well," Piper sighed, "Yes we are."  
  
"And you're looking for the slayer?" Buffy jumped in.  
  
"Well yeah. I mean, we need her help. And if you guys could help us find her, if you know where she is, that would be great." Piper asked.  
  
"Find who?" Anya came back to the front desk.  
  
"They're looking for the slayer," Giles said, turning his attention to Anya.  
  
"Oh. Well she's standing right there," Anya glanced at Buffy.  
  
"Anya," Buffy whispered, "Not everyone is suppose to know that I'm the slayer, remember?"  
  
"We won't tell anyone. I know how you feel. We don't really reveal our identity to anyone and everyone either. But we do need your help." Piper sympathized.  
  
The Hallowell sisters and part of the gang sat down at the table in the middle of the shop to explain. Phoebe and Buffy had a similar dream, so Phoebe and Buffy on their own, decided that the demon they saw needed to be taken care of. The rest of the gang and the other two sisters knew they couldn't let the two do it alone. So, they too joined in on the plan to destroy the demon and save the child.  
  
"So, how do we get into your dream, or her dream?" Willow asked, unsurely.  
  
"Well, we can do a time spell. It's not that hard," Paige informed, "The spell can take us all back into one of their dreams, and hopefully we can use our powers to help you kill it. But the question is, who's dream do we go into?"  
  
"We'll go in yours," Buffy answered, talking to Phoebe, "Yours had a lot more detail, and the last thing we need to do is get caught up in some dream mumbo jumbo, that takes us through a million images in one minute. With yours, at least you were in a solid place. You knew where you were."  
  
"Okay," Phoebe took a deep breath, "So here's the plan-"  
  
"Well wait. How'd you know your powers work?" Willow asked.  
  
"She's right." Giles agreed.  
  
"Well, they have too. The Book of Shadows said that witches can't defeat it alone. It had to be killed by a slayer. So we'll need our powers to either freeze him, like Piper does, or just distract him while someone gets the child home," Paige said.  
  
"Okay. It says here that your powers can work in something like that. A dream world that is, but they might not have the same effect there as they do in reality. Meaning, you freeze things?" Tara asked Piper, looking up from a book.  
  
"Yes," Piper answered.  
  
"Well okay. When you freeze something here-" Tara paused.  
  
The bell rang, letting them know once again someone was coming in, and who else would it have been? But Xander and Spike, wearing a blanket over his head.  
  
"Bloody hell," He said, throwing the wool blanket to the ground.  
  
"Like this?" Piper threw her hands out, freezing both Xander and Spike in midair.  
  
"Um, yeah," Tara was surprised, "Well however long they stay frozen, it might not be that long in the dream world. For example, two minutes could only be two seconds there, maybe less."  
  
"Makes sense. Dreams seem like they last for twenty seconds, but in all reality it's more like two hours." Willow pointed out.  
  
"So guys," Xander said, unfreezing along with Spike, "Well, hello." He noticed three new members sitting at the table that he had never seen before.  
  
They filled the two in on what all was going on, and so the plan was set, and all things had been decided. Piper created a spell that would take them back to Phoebe's exact dream she had the night before. This way they wouldn't risk being taken to someone else's dream or some other dimension for that matter. In order for the spell to work, Phoebe and Buffy had to fall asleep and so they did, but the rest of the gang, the ones needed in the dreamland all held hands and remained in a circle. Willow started to chant, which was needed to keep them all in the dreamland for as long as needed. And Piper said the spell aloud.  
  
"Our here us now, great and powerful ones. Take us back to Phoebe's most recent dreamland, and allows us to all use our powers, to help lend a hand. A demon to kill is why we go, now take us there and let the dreamland be known. Let us return safely, back here to our home."  
  
A red glowing circle formed around them all, and Willow continued to chant, being the barrier of the worlds. Piper, and Paige found themselves on the same beaten path that Phoebe was on, but Phoebe and Buffy were no where to be found just yet.  
  
"Guys?" Buffy yelled, "You guys, are you there?"  
  
"We're here!" Paige shouted.  
  
Buffy smacked down a few bushes and tree limbs that were in here way and joined the others along the beaten path, holding Phoebe's hand.  
  
"Whow. Cool dress," Paige said to Phoebe.  
  
"Yeah um, let's just concentrate on killing this thing," Phoebe said looking around.  
  
The innocent laugh that she had heard earlier, sounded again.  
  
"Here she comes," Phoebe said. "Remember, when the sky turns black and the winds pick up, I'll grab her and run. Piper, you and Paige help distract him while Buffy kills him."  
  
Buffy looked all around her. Everything was peaceful. The perfume of the wildflowers smothered the air, and there seemed to be a mist. Just like Phoebe had seen. Even the water trickled in the distance, and in a way, Buffy didn't want to leave. Who lived here? How could there be any disturbance here, or any evil?  
  
The little girl ran into Phoebe, knocking herself down, dropping the doll. Everything was happening just like it did before. Phoebe did the same and helped the little girl up, handing her the doll.  
  
"Thank you," The sweet little voice said.  
  
"Um you're welcome. Listen, we need to get you home." Phoebe tried to hurry things along, but in a nice way.  
  
"I'm not sure what way to go," The little girl smiled.  
  
And as before, the winds picked up, the sky faded into ebony black and the single white lightening bolt struck in the distance.  
  
"Oh god, here we go. Guys get ready, here he comes!" Phoebe said, getting knocked to her feet, and once again seeing the little girl get swept up, and hearing the shrill scream.  
  
"Freeze him Piper, freeze him!" Paige screamed.  
  
"I can't do it without freezing her too!" Piper yelled, trying to talk over the wind.  
  
"Just do it!" Phoebe said, jumping back up to her feet.  
  
Piper's hands flew out in front of her, freezing him and the child but for only a micro second. All it seemed to do was startle him, not freeze him. Out of his hand came a big red ball of energy, knocking Piper and Paige to the ground.  
  
"Hey!" Buffy screamed, some how now standing right behind the demon. The demon still held the child in his arms, but turned around to look to see what creature dare challenge him next.  
  
Buffy stood with a sword in her left hand, and her right rested against her hip. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"  
  
Being distracted by her, Phoebe was able to yank the child from his arms and into hers, and she ran with her down the path.  
  
"Like me." Buffy smiled as she began a battle with him, by running and kicking him in the face, and as always knocking him backwards, but not to his feet.  
  
Piper threw her freezing technique on him every time Buffy hit or kicked him. This way, it distracted him even more, not letting him have time to realize what was going on. Buffy gave him one final blow, kicking him in the stomach, finally knocking him on his back and to the ground. She quickly made her way behind him, picking him up, and holding his head in her hands.  
  
"Say goodnight bitch," Buffy said, turning his head forcefully almost all the way around, making it pop and crack, letting him go, watching him fall back down like a pile of trash. He lay lifeless, but the winds didn't let up and the sky was still ebony.  
  
"Okay, all the black and wind and stuff should've went away," Piper started to panic.  
  
"He's not dead yet," Buffy said, as she picked up the sharp sword, cutting his skull looking head off, causing the wind to let up at once and the sun to shine once again.  
  
Phoebe, still running down the path, covering the little girl's head, stopped once everything seemed to come back to normal.  
  
"Why did you stop? Keep going! He's coming!" The little girl buried her face into Phoebe's shoulder, crying.  
  
"No," Phoebe ran her hand down the little girl's head, "It's okay. He's gone." She knew the demon died.  
  
Come to find out, the demon had the power to make children forget simple things. Things a child should always know, like how to get home. That's why this little girl had no idea which way to run to get away from him. They all watched the little girl behind some bushes and trees as she returned to her mother, father and brother who seemed to have been worried about her for quite sometime. It appeared they lived in a small little cottage.  
  
Willow got an okay from them somehow and stopped the chanting, allowing them all to surface to the real world. Everything was fine. The little girl was returned to her family and things were now safe and sound.  
  
"If you ever need us," Phoebe said as they got ready to get in the car and head back home, "Look us up. We'd be happy to help in anyway we can."  
  
"Yes, thank you," Piper shook hands with Buffy, "It was a pleasure meeting the slayer."  
  
Buffy smiled, "You guys have a safe trip home."  
  
As they drove away, Buffy, Willow and Giles watched them travel down the road until they got so far away they were unable to be seen.  
  
"That was cool," Buffy said, as they all made their way back into the magic shop. "It's not everyday you get to talk to people who do similar things that I do." 


End file.
